The best of Mendelssohn can be found in the chamber music. These
vibrant, brilliantly played performances bring further confirmation
of the rewards this repertoire can bring. This prolific composer
is known by only a small proportion of his remarkable output –
though with luck that should be challenged during the bicentenary
year of 2009 – and it is always rewarding to explore beyond the
well-known pieces. Ample proof of this is found in the string
quintets.
The disc begins with the finer of the two
works, the Quintet in B flat from 1845. This is among a host
of compositions that challenge the misconception that there
was a falling-off in quality in the music dating from the
later phase of Mendelssohn’s tragically short life - he died
at only 38. The sheer élan with which this piece opens is
breathtaking. The music requires playing of a high order to
make its mark, and it receives this from the Fine Arts Quartet
and their guest violist, Danielo Rossi.
In his quintets Mendelssohn opts for Mozart’s
extra viola rather than Schubert’s extra cello, and the results
are richly satisfying in terms of texture and sonority. The
Adagio, positioned third in the sequence of four movements,
gains particular reward in this regard, aided by a warmly
atmospheric recording. While as a whole this fine performance
does not quite capture the spirit and vitality of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble (Philips
420 400 2), the coupling of the two quintets has an obvious
appeal, whereas the Academy offers the famous and splendid
Octet.
The Quintet No. 1 is another composition,
like the Octet, that comes from Mendelssohn’s gloriously productive
teenage years. For a child prodigy composer, we should go
to Mendelssohn, rather than to Mozart. This music is fresh
and alive, and shares so many of the general characteristics
of its successor from twenty years later that it is tempting
to suggest that he modelled the one composition on the other.
In the process of its creation the Quintet no. 1 lost a Minuetto
and gained an Intermezzo, so a further attraction is
that the alternative movement is included as an appendix.
The Intermezzo, at Andante sostenuto, is the
slow movement the original version lacked, and therefore it
changes the perspective and balance of the whole work, with
its refinement and elegance.
The booklet contains all the essential information,
but in the English version of the notes there is a half empty
page and a very small font size. This makes no sense, and
betrays a lack of editorial guile.
Terry Barfoot
see also Review
by Simon Thompson
Fine Arts String
Quartet; Danilo Rossi (viola)
